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High school boundary changes underway
It's been years since Prince William families have had to undergo a high school boundary change but the process has now begun again in western Prince William.School officials have already begun mapping out changes in anticipation of the 11th high school opening, set for 2011 in the Kettle Run area.
The school will house up to 2,053 students and will alleviate overcrowding at Battlefield, Brentsville and Osbourn Park high schools.
Boundary changes are generally contentious processes, pitting neighborhood against neighborhood and everyone against the planners tasked with deciding which students will change schools.
The good news this year is that current high school students will not be affected; because the school won't open until 2011, it is the current sixth and seventh graders who are being shifted from one school district to another.
And even after the boundary changes take effect, not many students will have to move. In the fall of 2011, ninth and 10th graders will attend the school in their new boundary area. But 11th graders will have the choice of whether to stay at their current school or shift to the school they've been reassigned to. Twelfth-graders will finish off their senior year at their current school.
However, parents of current middle-schoolers who chose their homes based on a certain school attendance area aren't happy with the prospect of eventually sending their kids to a high school they didn't chose.
Especially if that school is Stonewall Jackson.
"A lot of the parents have concerns about Stonewall if they're not going to participate in the International Baccalaureate program," said a father who asked not to be identified.
His thoughts were echoed by many parents who attended an April 14 informational meeting at Battlefield High School.
Stonewall Jackson High School is known for its specialty IB program for highly motivated students and was "Time Magazine's" 2001 High School of the Year.
However, the school is more urban and has a higher minority population (64 percent) than either Brentsville (28 percent) or Battlefield (37 percent.)
Stonewall also has more economically disadvantaged students: 33 percent, compared to Battlefield and Brentsville, which both have fewer than 10 percent.
So when Lionel White, the school division's supervisor of planning, asked for input from the crowd, he got an earful as parents demanded that their children not be sent to Stonewall.
"We want to keep our kids in quality education," one Battlefield parent said. "We have money invested in this area."
Some, however, just wanted their children to go to the same schools as their neighbors.
"We keep getting overlooked for boundary changes," said Melisa Garney, a New Bristow Village resident who attended the meeting with several of her neighbors.
New Bristow Village teens currently attend Brentsville High School. Under the first version of the boundary change plan, they'd stay at BDHS while their neighbors just on the other side of Nokesville Road would go to the new high school.
Garney and other New Bristow Village residents asked that their children be sent to the new school as well, so they could continue to go to school with their friends and churchmates.
Under a newer version of the boundary plan, they'll get their wish. In response to their request, school planners created Plan B, which would send New Bristow Village to the 11th high school.
"We're working this as we have input that we can respond to," David Beavers, the school division's supervisor of planning and financial services, said on Monday.
Several other changes were made in the second version of the plan as well. Plan A keeps the Coverstone area at Battlefield but Plan B moves the community to Stonewall Jackson.
That frees up some room at Battlefield so Hopewell's Landing, Breyerton Estates and other areas inside the Haymarket triangle can stay at Battlefield under Plan B. Plan A had assigned most of that Haymarket triangle area to the 11th high school but under Plan B, only Somerset Crossing and the nearby trailer park would move.
And while Plan A leaves the Great Oak community at Stonewall Jackson, Plan B moves it to Brentsville. Parents had requested the change because all of the surrounding neighborhoods will likely be moved to Brentsville.
Beavers said on Monday that the planning staff is still open to suggestions from residents.
A second meeting will be held April 21 at 7 p.m., at Brentsville District High School.
The third and final meeting will be held April 28 at 7 p.m. at Stonewall Jackson High School, 8820 Rixlew Lane in Manassas.
The School Board will hold a public hearing on the boundary changes on May 20 before voting on the final plan.
Detailed maps are available online at www.pwcs.edu/Constructplan.
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